.85 



What New York Did 
for Fighting Men 

through New York War Camp 
Community Service in the 
World-War of 1917-I919 



NEW YORK: 15 EAST 40™ STREET 



FOREWORD 



To the People of New York City 

We have practically finished our job — the World War is dead 
— or dying ! — and the "clean-up" period is finished. During 
the two-and-a-half years of its work, you extended your hos- 
pitality and rendered service to more than two million men 
in uniform through New York War Camp Community Service. 

You depended on this agency to help you do this. It is 
now time to show you whether or not the organization was 
worthy of your trust — whether it "did the job." In the 
following series of short articles, account to you is rendered. 

When you have weighed the story in the balance, you will 
assuredly find that neither the people of New York as a 
community, nor New York War Camp Community Service, 
the agency through which they worked, have been found 
wanting. If then, you judge that the work was "a good job 
well done," you may want to throw the weight of your effort 
and influence into the balance to help make New York a per- 
manently friendly city and a better place for all of us to live in. 

Such being your well considered decision, the way to its effect- 
ual fulfilment may be found in New York Community Service. 



TKANSFERnHD FROM 
?17:.ZZXM DIVl?!0:i 



ACTIVITIES DURING THE WORLD WAR 



PAGE 3 



H 5-no 



General Summary 

By Rowland Haynes, Director 



<■ X TEW YORK WAR CAMP COMMUNITY 

^ . X^ SERVICE has been the New York City branch 

^ ^ of the War Camp Community Service, organized 

^ under the War and Navy Department Commissions on 

*" Training Camp Activities. 

The task assigned to it has been the looking out for 
the off-duty time of soldiers, sailors and marines, while 
they have been in New York City. 

The chief points which have sent men to the city have 
been Camp Upton, Camp Mills, Camp Merritt, the 
great Embarkation and Debarkation station at Hoboken, 
the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and the battleships and trans- 
ports constantly in the harbor. It has been estimated 
that about 200,000 men have been constantly in the ter- 
ritory tributary to New York City, and that the average 
number of men coming to this city has varied from 
20,000 to 50,000 per day, according to the movements of 
the troops. 

The Organizer was appointed August 1, 1917, but 
the work did not get fairly under way until November, 
1917. 

With the large percentage of returning troops coming 
through this port, the work kept up, with little abate- 
ment, until the close of the summer of 1919. The work 
then rapidly fell off, and as a war job was practically 
completed by October, 1919. 

The general principle on which War Camp Com- 
munity Service has worked is that it would organize act- 
ivities to meet the needs of the soldiers, sailors, and mar- 
ines. Where existing organizations could handle the work, 
nothing new was attempted by the War Camp Com- 
munity Service. Where it was impossible to have existing 
organizations handle all of the work, the War Camp Com- 
munity Service, on its own funds, took up the task, and 
saw that the needs of the men were met. 

The major part of the work has fallen under the fol- 
lowing five heads: 

1. Information. 

2. Clubs. 

3. Entertainment. 

4. Provision of sleeping accommodations. 

5. Girls' Work. 

Information 

In a city like New York, rich in opportunities for 
wholesome recreation, one of the chief tasks has been to 
let the men know what there is for them. A Weekly 
Calendar was issued showing the opportunities offered 
throughout the city. Other pieces of miscellaneous ad- 



vertising to point the men to special occasions for their 
benefit made a total of 12,718,912 pieces of advertising 
distributed for the benefit of the men. 

Information Booths, manned by loyal women volun- 
teers, have been placed throughout the city and have 
answered a total of over a million inquiries. 

Clubs 

There have been a few more than sixty clubs render- 
ing service to the men. These clubs have furnished reading 
and writing rooms, checking places for parcels, in most 
cases a canteen, and special forms of entertainment. The 
clubs have been of two chief kinds: those which have 
been managed by or operated for War Camp Community 
Service, and those which have been affiliated with W. C. 
C. S. 

In managed clubs. War Camp Community Service has 
borne the entire expense. In operated clubs. War Camp 
Community Service has borne part of the expense, and 
the clubs have been operated for it by various groups. 
The largest group of clubs has been the affiliated group. 
These clubs have been financed by other agencies and 
War Camp Community Service has turned the enlisted 
men to them, and has assisted the management in various 
ways. Over 3,067,957 men took advantage of the club 
facilities of the managed, operated and affiliated clubs 
while they were in operation. 

One of the most interesting clubs has been that for the 
colored men in Harlem. It has rendered service to more 
than 40,000 colored men. This club not only has had 
canteen and sleeping accommodations but has been the 
centre of the entertainment work for colored troops. 

Entertainment 

One of the chief desires of the men has been for a 
chance to dance under wholesome conditions. War 
Camp Community Service has operated large Saturday 
night dances with an attendance of from one thousand 
to four thousand people at each dance. In addition there 
have been numerous small dances in connection with the 
clubs and various organizations. Over 266,000 men at- 
tended dances given by the Social Department. 

Sunday afternoon has been a vacant time in the life 
of many of the visiting soldiers and sailors. Free Sunday 
afternoon theatrical entertainments were held with an 
attendance of over 300,000. The theatrical people have 
been generous in volunteering their services, so that the 
very highest class of entertainment has been provided. 
During the summer of 1919, these entertainments were 



PAGE 4 



NEW YORK WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE 



transferred from indoors to the roof of the Madison 
Square Garden and were held Saturday and Sunday 
evenings. 

One of the great desires of the men on week day even- 
ings has been to see regular Broadway theatrical attrac- 
tions. To meet this need, War Camp Community Serv- 
ice has distributed 93,051 passes and tickets to the men. 

During the summers of 1918 and 1919, a special club 
run for the men at Coney Island distributed, through 
an arrangement with the entertainment proprietors of 
that popular resort, 113,379 entrance tickets, either free 
or at half rate. 

One of the most helpful developments in the enter- 
tainment field has been the Volunteer Entertainment 
Department. There have been more soldiers and sailors 
requiring amusement than could be entertained by talent 
secured from professional sources. To meet this, volun- 
teer entertainers have been assembled, tried out and 
trained, and the entertainments presented in various clubs 
and forts. 

Many of the men welcomed an opportunity while in 
the city to drop into some friendly home and have 
dinner. It was especially true on Thanksgiving oc- 
casions or at Christmas and New Years. On Thanks- 
giving Day, 1918, 10,365 dinners were provided. 

Closely allied to the home dinners has been the work 
at the Hall of States. The fundamental idea here has 
been to bring the men from each state in contact with 
people from their own state, living in New York. Vol- 
unteer Committees from the various states have given 
this home touch to the visiting men, talking with them, 
telling them of conditions in their home state, and getting 
up special entertainments by representatives of their own 
state. The total attendance at the Hall of States has 
been 202,500. 

As one man remarked, "the biggest thing in New York, 
is New York itself." Many of the men have been 
anxious to see the town. 'Bus rides have been arranged 
with volunteer guides and printed information about the 
points of interest. In all 39,578 men were shown the town 
in this way. 

New York City has taken its part in the movement to 
put a singing nation behind a singing army, and with 
the advent of the demobilization period to have a singing 
city to meet a returning army. This work has been 
particularly helpful in making the people at home feel 
that they had an active part in welcoming the returning 
men. Over 1,284,817 people participated in these sings. 

Lodging Accommodations 

Since thousands of the men had leaves of 24 or 48 
hours in the city, the demand for clean, cheap sleeping 
accommodations has been very great. Especially has 
this been true at week-ends or at the time of special 



occasions like the visit of the Atlantic Fleet. In the 
twenty months or more in which the War Camp Com- 
munity Service was working on this problem, there 
have been only two nights when it was not able to meet 
all the demands put upon it. Altogether there have 
been 715,298 sleeping accommodations issued for the 
men, either through our own units or through units 
affiliated with us. The most usual price of these accom- 
modations has been twenty-five cents a night. 

Girls' Division 

It has been said that this has not been a war of armies, 
but a war of peoples. The social work which has been 
done primarily for the enlisted men would have been 
absolutely incomplete without work for and by the girls 
and young women of the city of New York. 

During the first experimental months the chief thought 
in the work for girls seemed to be to keep them busy and 
away from the men. As experience and common sense 
dominated, it came to be seen that the chief task was to 
give the girls opportunity of work in various forms of 
war service, and also give them wholesome opportunities 
for expressing the comradeship which they were sure to 
have with the men. 

As a result of these first experimental months, the 
work during the last half of our service has sought by 
rallies to help the girls appreciate that they too had a part 
in the great war, and they were enlisted in various forms 
of service in connection with agencies who have been 
working for the benefit of the men. 

The most important part of the work has been the 
comrade parties that have developed under their leader- 
ship, where the girls have met the enlisted men in a so- 
cial way in wholesome surroundings. 

With the signing of the armistice and the demobiliza- 
tion period, the impetus has been in this comrade work 
to have the girls help in welcoming the men back into 
the social life of their own neighborhood. 

Officers' Service Department and Club 

At first, attention was given entirely to the enlisted 
men. Later it was found that thousands of officers 
coming through and to New York City had many wants 
that War Camp Community Service could meet. 

In the summer of 1918, the Officers' Service Depart- 
ment was developed. Through the co-operation of the 
Hotel Managers, hotel accommodations were secured at 
half rates for the officers. 

In the great transportation service, there were found 
to be hundreds of officers coming here with their families. 
This led to the development of a service which helped 
these officers to find boarding houses or apartments at 
rates which they could afford on the salary paid by the 
government. 





A "Red Circle" Informatton Booth 



Pretty "Bally-Hoo" Girls Announce Points of InteresI 
ON Sightseeing Bus Trips 




Rally of Gikls' Division at Aeolian Hall, with Refresentatives from Twenty- 
one Districts in Greater New \ oku 





The Gheat "Welcome H(»me" Sign that Greeted Trans- 
ports Entering New York Harbor 



Training Class in Song Leaders' School, under Direction 
OF THE Sing Department 





Thousands OF Home Letters Have Been Written at 
Unit No. 5 Around this Great Tablb 






"Over the Top " to Health — One of the Beautiful 
Estates Thrown Open to Convalescent Officers 



Bea. h Pleasures Near the W. C. C. S. Coney Island Unit 




One of Several Country Homes Ofe.n to Convalescent 
Officers through the Officers' Department 



ACTIVITIES DURING THE WORLD WAR 



PAGE 5 



It was then found that a large number of the officers 
needed help in making their purchases. A Shopping 
Bureau was developed which has procured discounts for 
officers in all lines where they desired to purchase. Over 
18,972 men have been helped by this Shopping Bureau. 

Special Demobilization Activities 

With the development of the demobilization period, it 
was found that three special needs developed: first, em- 
ployment ; second, convalescent work ; third, welcome 
home clubs. 

At first, the War Camp Community Service, with the 
other welfare agencies, worked under the direction of the 
U. S. Employment Service in finding jobs for the men, 
securing jobs and turning them over to the U. S. Employ- 
ment Service, which handled the placing of the men. 

Later, under the direction of the Merchants Associa- 
tion and a large number of employers' associations, the 
welfare organizations joined in the formation of the Re- 
Employment Committee for New York City. 

War Camp Community Service has contributed its 
proportion of funds to this committee. At the request 
of this committee. War Camp Community Service con- 
tinued in Brooklyn its special employment service, as 
well as special work for the colored men at the colored 
unit. 

In the Brooklyn office of the War Camp Community 
Service, 6,134 men have been placed in jobs to date. 
45,486 jobs have been made available for the men. All 
of the jobs that were not needed by the men coming to 
the Brooklyn Bureau were made available for other 
agencies. 

One of the most necessary problems of the demobiliza- 
tion period has been the work for the convalescent men. 
The work in the hospitals has been done by and through 
the Red Cross. All of the men, however, have wel- 
comed the opportunity to get away from the hospitals 
for a few hours to break the hospital routine. These 
men have been taken to various clubs and given special 
entertainment. Thousands of them have been given 'bus 
rides and special trips around the city. 

Pershing Hospitality House in Gramercy Park has 
been particularly active in this regard. Over 31,136 



convalescent men have been entertained at this one club 
under the auspices of War Camp Community Service. 

Many of the men after they have been discharged from 
the hospital have required a few days in the coun- 
try to bring back the strength they needed in order to meet 
the battle of life again. 

War Camp Community Service, cooperating with the 
War Risk Insurance Bureau, has found places in the 
country where these men could be taken care of and get 
the recuperation which they needed. 

In various neighborhoods, the returning soldiers have 
wanted to get together. The policy in getting them 
together has been not to separate them from the neighbor- 
hood in which they were to live, but to draw them closer 
to these neighborhoods. To meet this need, "Welcome 
Home Clubs" have been developed, where the returned 
men have had dances and other social occasions in con- 
nection with their own home people. 

These Home Clubs were simply started by War Camp 
Community Service, and helped during their initial stages. 
By the end of October, all of them were either self- 
supporting or chiefly supported by some local agency. 

Conclusion 

One of the happiest results of the war has been the 
changed attitude which thousands of these men who have 
passed through this great metropolis have taken to this 
city because of this hospitality. 

Many of the men thought New York hard and cold, 
inhospitable. They have gone away with the feeling 
that this city is a city of friendliness. 

This work has not been done by the War Camp Com- 
munity Service. It has been done by the people of New 
York City. War Camp Community Service has simply 
given direction and the channels of expression through 
which this happy result has been accomplished. 

As War Camp Community Service develops into the 
Community Service of peace time, its fundamental task 
will be to see that this habit of hospitality, and this habit 
of working together which has been developed through 
the work for the soldiers, sailors and marines, may be pre- 
served in meeting the great problems of the coming years. 



/(\ST ns War Camp Community Service helped to maintain the tnorale of the 
enlisted forces of the war by organizing facilities for the pleasant and profit- 
able use of their off-duty time, so Community Sertnce aims to assist in maintaining 
the morale of us all at highest level by the promotion of spare time opportunities 
for recreation and improvement. 



PAGE 6 



NEW YORK WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE 



Advertising Department 



Even hospitality had to be "sold" to the soldiers, sailors and marines stationed near New 
York. It took over 12,000,000 pieces of advertising matter to keep the Red Circle constantly 
before the men, telling them of the good times awaiting in The Big Town. 



THE Advertising Department came into being in 
September, 1917, and had in hand both the news- 
paper publicity and the advertising and printing 
of the organization, then known as National Service Com- 
mission. The work was done on the basis of half-time 
of the incumbent in charge; this arrangement remaining 
in effect until March, 1918, when the work was placed 
on a whole-time basis. 

In the beginning the work was considerably hampered 
by lack of staff aid. This was remedied in the summer 
of 1918 by the assignment from National Headquarters 
of a number of able men. With their assistance in mak- 
ing contacts with military and naval points to ascertam 
advertising needs, and to secure military and naval co- 
operation, the work was at once placed on a progressive 
and efficient basis, from which it is believed it has not 
since fallen short. 

The Press Department, which in the beginning was 
a part of the Advertising Department, was separated in 
June, 1918. 

The activity of the Department is well shown by the 
fact that roughly speaking, some 1,300 points were reached 
with literature each week, and some 12,000,000 pieces in 
all have been printed in these two years. The work of 
the Booth Department was later taken over as a part of 
the Advertising Department, and the Press Department 
was again co-ordinated with the latter under what was 
known as the Division of Advertising and Information. 
The function of the Advertising Department proper 
has been to plan, purchase, and place all printed matter 
used by the organization, whether the printing be done 
upon ribbons, badges, and banners, or upon booklets, 
folders, dodgers, show cards, etc. The actual "advertis- 
ing" matter has, of course, been of two types: that in- 
tended to enlist the aid of the public in serving men in 
uniform, and that designed to inform men in uniform of 
the hospitality at their disposal. 

The Advertising Department has served not only as 
purchasing agent for all printed matter, but as a means 
of standardizing the same. It has also acted wherever 
possible in an advisory capacity to assist various depart- 
ment heads in preparing literature best designed to ac- 
complish their purpose. 

The most important single publication has been the 
Weekly News Calendar. Begun as a weekly broadside to 
be posted on company bulletin boards, the first edition 



being 6,000 copies, it was soon transformed into a pocket 
size. The regular weekly issue when mobilization and 
demobilization were at maximum was about, or even in 
excess of, 100,000. 

The second most important, and hardly less interest- 
ing regular publication of the Department was the so- 
called "Bulletin" published at intervals of a few months 
and containing all the information about New York, its 
sights and wonders, its ways and its hospitality that would 
interest the city's uniformed guests. Five such "Bul- 
letins" have been issued, each of them written colloquially 
and illustrated humorously with a view to making the 
city's uninformed guests feel at home among "Home 
Folks." 

An interesting bit of advertising was the distribution 
of a million and a half Welcome Home stickers approxi- 
mately 8j^"-xH", which were placed on the wind-shields 
of most of the cars in New York City, and which were 
also placed in the homes of almost a million school chil- 
dren through the co-operation of the Board of Educa- 
tion. This was, without doubt, the most outstanding bit 
of "Welcome Home" propaganda carried out by any 
welfare organization during the return of the war 
veterans. 

The good offices of the Fifth Avenue Coach Com- 
pany made it possible to carry an advertising card sign 
on the outside of the company's busses almost continu- 
ously. Car cards on the railway throughout Long Island 
and Westchester County have also had their part in the 
advertising program. 

In addition, some eight or ten lantern slides have been 
produced in large quantities, and have been placed in 
moving pictures theatres throughout New York City, and 
in all the camps and military points adjacent to New 
York, as well as upon the transports which brought the 
men home. 

The outdoor advertising of the department has brought 
considerable attention also. It included (1) painted 
signboards in the city and camps, and roads from camps, 
(2) large display nets across the streets in downtown 
New York, and (3) 200 bulletin boards, distributed at 
strategic points throughout the metropolitan district, on 
which special activities were set forth. The largest of the 
signboards was the huge "Welcome" sign placed on a 
barge anchored near the Statue of Liberty, greeting every 
man who came home through this port. 



ACTIVITIES DURING THE WORLD WAR 



PAGE 7 



Another feature of the advertising program has been 
the 500 gilt and brown frames, each holding a quarter 
sheet show-card, placed in the most prominent store 
windows on Fifth Avenue, Broadway, and all the promi- 
nent streets of New York City. 

The department has from time to time gotten out a 
number of posters, show-cards, badges, tickets and an 
almost countless number of small so-called throw-away 
cards for use by various units, to be handed out wherever 
possible to men in uniform, either in the city or at camps 
and on board ship. Of these, the total number printed 
and scattered has been approximately 7,500,000. 

In the way of special literature might be mentioned 
the fleet bulletin which recorded the combined hospitality 
of the seven War Work agencies in welcoming the Victory 
Fleet ; also the folder printed to welcome the 5th Division, 
the first regulars to come home from France. However, 
the outstanding "special" program has been that organ- 
ized for the Hall of States in which special advertising 
in all its branches has been carefully worked out and ex- 
tensively distributed. 

The activity of the department may be best gauged by 
the number and kind of certain units of advertising indi- 
cated in the following: 

Record of Production from December 21, 1917, to 
September 1, 1919: 

Cards 3,203,150 

Folders and Booklets 1,507,235 

Tickets 997,700 

Posters 283,187 

Circulars 561,550 

Calendars 5,017,025 

Badges, etc 42,065 

Labels and Stickers 1,107,000 

miS^:B 

' - 12,718,912 

This does not include stationery printed for ourselves 
or any of our units. 



Distribution 

Prompt and effective distribution of advertising matter 
when issued was throughout an essential which the Dis- 
tribution Bureau of the department made possible. The 
personnel of the bureau, since its inception in June, 1918, 
have been devotedly loyal and untiringly "on the job," 
without which the work of reaching the man in uniform 
with information of "What's doing in New York" must 
have fallen flat. The bureau finally reached a point of 
functioning practically one hundred per cent, of efficiency. 
The service of this bureau may be seen in the following: 

The total number of military points at which contact 
has been made numbers 1,350. The Distribution Bureau 
has been responsible not only for the distributing of 
literature to these points, but constant investigation of 
new literature needed to be prepared in order best to serve 
their needs. "" 

The Weekly Calendars have been distributed to all of 
the above contact points regularly, by mail as well as by 
bicycle, auto, motorcycle, and on foot. This distribution 
in addition to covering every military point in the City 
of New York and reaching the navy ships in the harbor, 
has extended from the eastern tip of Long Island to the 
Pennsylvania border, and from the New Jersey coast as 
far north as West Point. 

The effectiveness of the work of the Advertising De- 
partment may be observed from the way in which War 
Camp Community Service publicity dominated New York 
City. There is no doubt but that this name has become 
the most prominently advertised and the most generally 
propagated name of any war-work agency in the city. 

That it has served its primary result — namely, ac- 
quainting men in uniform with "What is Doing" in New 
York for them, may be seen from the one instance of the 
Hall of States program in which the attendance at this 
institution was trebled within four weeks after the be- 
ginning of the advertising campaign. 



Publicity Department 



Stories about War Camp Community Service reached nearly three hundred million readers. 
The Publicity Department did it/ 



THE first publicity sent out by this department was 
published in September, 1917. From that date 
until September, 1919, a total of more than 
1,630 stories were published in the metropolitan news- 
papers and periodicals. These stories have a circu- 
lation of 270,837,427, thus showing that the name of 
the New York War Camp Community Service was 



brought before the public in a favorable light that many 
times. 

The above figures are conservative, as it is impossible 
to obtain all the clippings of stories published. 

During its existence this department stimulated and 
maintained public interest and obtained co-operation from 
the citizens of New York in the necessary work of the 



PAGE 8 



NEW YORK WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE 



New York War Camp Community Service. It has given 
much-needed information to hundreds of thousands of 
service men and has been able to give proof to the sup- 
porters of the New York War Camp Community Ser 
vice that the organization was properly caring for the 
men in uniform. 

The standing of this department was attested dur- 



ing the reception to the Atlantic Fleet when it was 
authorized by the seven other War-Work agencies to 
conduct the publicity necessary to make that function a 
success. 

In addition to its separate function in the N. Y. 
W. C. C. S., this department has been active in planning 
and advising on the work of the organization. 



Volunteer Department 



Parents often get out of patience with their children for asking too many questions. The 
Information Booth Bureau answered over 1,000,000 inquiries and did not find them too many. 



ORGANIZED during the summer of 1918, this 
department was the pioneer in many lines of 
service to soldiers and sailors, several of which 
were later organized into separate bureaus to meet in- 
creased needs. 

In addition to giving a large amount of miscellaneous 
service, the department originated the idea and organized 
the information service through the Information Booths, 
conducted the "Have-a-Lift" campaign in the Wall Street 
district, organized the Speakers' Bureau, designed the 
uniform worn by the women workers of the War Camp 
Community Service; induced a large number of artists 
to paint signs, thereby saving much expense to W. C. 
C. S.; performed a large amount of clerical work; 
handled checkroom for night functions at the Pershing 
Club; organized the Volunteer Entertainment Bureau; 
gave assistance through its Speakers' Bureau during the 
United Wark Work Campaign ; furnished the American 
Red Cross with much-needed volunteers on emergency 
calls and took entire charge of many thousands of "Christ- 
mas Stockings" during the Christmas holidays of 1918. 

The Personnel Bureau of this department interviewed 
and classified over 2,000 volunteer workers since the 
beginning. The Work Shop Bureau of the Depart- 
ment successfully accomplished much onerous work, 
averaging more than 300 odd jobs each month. The 
Entertainment Bureau, previous to becoming a separate 
unit, organized and successfully carried out a campaign 
whereby many thousand "Have-a-Lift" signs were sold 
and as many automobiles enrolled for carrying service 
men without charge. The Scrap-Book Bureau of the 
Department was organized shortly before the end of 
the war, November 11, 1918, but supplied more than 
100 scrap-books for the amusement of convalescents in 
hospitals both here and abroad. 



Information Booth Bureau 

The Information Booth Bureau, organized by this de- 
partment, operated nineteen booths in Manhattan at the 
end of the war and now has ten. To these must be added 
two in Brooklyn and the complete information centres 
in Newark, Hoboken, Englewood, Jersey City and Pater- 
son, N. J., where the New York bureau co-operate'^. 
The Information Booth Bureau is now a part of the 
Division of Advertising and Information. All informa- 
sion of every kind needed is on file in the booths and 
centres, and is constantly kept up-to-date. From August 
15, 1918, to January 25, 1919, the booths gave a total 
of 266,013 services, the number increasing until the be- 
ginning of demobilization. The more recent period 
from May 3 until August 23, 1919, shows that the Booth 
Bureau gave 370,167 services, of which 84,627 were to 
civilians. During this period the number of volunteers 
varied from 217 to 293 weekly, the high figure being the 
last week in August, 1919, thus showing a steady growth 
in spite of the fact that the war-service spirit was waning. 

Throughout all its existence the Volunteer Department 
has responded to all calls of every kind and has always 
held itself ready to serve men in uniform. This was 
possible through the unselfish devotion of its thousands of 
volunteers, all of whom gave their time without question 
when called upon. 

Volunteer Entertainment Bureau 

Operating as a separate department the Volunteer En- 
tertainment Bureau dates its beginning from its separa- 
tion from the Volunteer Department in November, 1918. 
Starting with three entertainments during the first month 
of its existence, it has grown until more than one hun- 
dred were given during July and August, 1919. These 
entertainments were staged upon request, in places 
of every description, from military camps to the greatest 
hotels in the city. 



ACTIVITIES DURING THE WORLD WAR 



PAGE 9 



During the period from April 26, to August 23, 1919, have enrolled for service with the Bureau, giving their 

427 entertainments were given at which 2,301 enter- time and talent free of charge. 

tainers appeared before more than 90,000 persons. Practically all persons entertained by the Bureau have 

More than 900 artists, many of them nationally known, been either soldiers or sailors. 



Club Department 



// took a lot of clubs to keep the men in uniform from walking the streets when they came 
to town. They had to be fed, too. War Camp Community Service had a department to do just 
that thing. ' 



THE growth of this department as a separate unit 
came about gradually and may be said to date from 
the middle of July, 1918. When at its largest 
scope its work included more than sixty canteens, service 
clubs and other units. No two of them were started on 
the same date, their work commencing when its need was 
shown. 

The service clubs and canteens were divided into three 
groups, those managed by W. C. G. S., those operated for 
W. C. C. S. and lastly, those affiliated with it. 

The total number of service men who accepted the 
hospitality of these units up to September, 1919, was 
more than 1,469,134. Meals were served to 594,455 
men; beds provided for 101,568, and those using the 
units for other purposes numbered 759,507. 



The Hayward Unit for colored soldiers and sailors 
was one of the most successfully managed clubs of this 
Department. Opened on August 1, 1918, the Unit 
cared for more than 40,000 colored service men up to 
September, 1919. In its work, the Unit provided 5,- 
015 meals; accommodated 11,527 men in its sleeping 
quarters, and held thirty-seven dances and entertain- 
ments, which were attended by 6,464 men. In addition, 
16,503 men used the Unit for various purposes. 

Employment work for colored service men has been 
centered at the HavAvard Unit and the record of this ac- 
tivity shows that 740 men registered for positions, 522 
were sent to positions and 316 were placed in positions 
which promised to afford permanent employment. 



Social Department 



Hobnailed shoes were never designed for dancing, yet some 3,000 young women risked their 
toes every Saturday night at the Khaki and Blue dances without a casualty. 



STARTING in November, 1917, to meet the urgent 
demand for proper social activities for service men, 
the Social Department up to September, 1919, 
entertained a total of 585,741 soldiers, sailors, marines 
and convalescents. 

A total of 983 dances were given for enlisted men and 
were attended by 266,524 of both services; home hos- 
pitality was given to 233,903 men; 1,196 entertainments 
were given 14,322 men; 126 dances and other entertain- 
ments were given for officers and were attended by 
12,975; 675 officers were given home hospitality; 31,136 
convalescents were given dances and other entertainments. 
E.xtraordinary success attended the great Khaki and 
Blue dances given first at the Grand Central Palace and 
later in the Seventy-first Regiment Armory. An ave- 



rage of nearly 2,000 uniformed men attended each of 
these weekly functions, and it is pleasing to note that 
although more than 3,000 dance partners were provided 
for these men, they were so carefully selected that the 
moral issue has never been raised. On September 1, 
1919, the list of workers enrolled in the Department 
numbered 150 hostesses, 300 chaperons, 50 floor men, and 
3,000 young women who acted as dance partners and en- 
tertainers. 

A number of special dances and other functions have 
been given by the Department, which was always called 
to the front in cases where welcome-home festivities or 
special celebrations were needed. Among these may be 
mentioned a dance for the men of the French Foreign 
Legion, then guests of New York ; welcome-home dance 
for men of the Atlantic Fleet, then returned from their 



PAGE 10 



NEW YORK WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE 



war service abroad ; special Thanksgiving and New 
Year's dances. Another feature of the work was a num- 
ber of dances given on the dreadnoughts and flagships 
of the navy. 

Pershing House in Gramercy Park, started during Oc- 
tober, 1918, has entertained 6,173 convalescents and has 
given 19,933 free meals to wounded soldiers and sailors. 



Its work has been highly commended by the Government 
Hospital authorities. It is significant that the success of 
Pershing House was assured by the co-operation of what 
is probably New York's last exclusively residence district. 
The signal success of the Social Department is largely 
due to the unselfish devotion of its thousands of volun- 
teers. 



Free Theatre Ticket Bureau 



When a man in uniform wanted to see a Broadway show, he had to go, even though he 
didn't have the price of the war tax. Thousands of men were sent to the best shows through 
the Free Theatre Ticket Bureau of War Camp Community Service. 



FROM the very beginning of its work, the New 
York War Camp Community Service realized the 
need of good entertainment for the enlisted man 
and planned entertainments, shows, parties, dances, and 
multitudes of things to "keep 'em smiling." Still a need 
was felt for more amusement. Broadway shows filled this 
need. 

About September 1, 1918, a visit was made to theatri- 
cal managers. An arrangement was made whereby 
tickets left at the box offices after 8 o'clock would be 
turned over without charge to the W. C. C. S. Theatre 
Ticket Bureau for distribution to men in uniform. Al- 
though the managers could not enter into a hard and 
fast agreement to do this, their generosity and whole- 
hearted co-operation made the plan a huge success. 

Between September 7 and December 16, 1918, the 
Bureau sent 22,334 uniformed visitors to the theatre. 

About this time New York was getting rid of some 
of its war worries and the theatres were crowded with 
civilians. Still, Buddy and Gob couldn't be left out of 
it, and the demands upon the Free Ticket Booth became 
so great that a weekly appropriation was made to buy 
extra tickets. 



Special holidays, the arrival of Army divisions, fleet 
reviews, yoemen and Army nurse parties, parties of 
wounded men, and special events made it necessary for 
the Theatre Ticket Bureau to buy seats, and some- 
times the entire seating capacity, in popular theatres. 
When the 27th Division arrived, part of its "Welcome 
Home" was two matinees given in their honor through 
W. C. C. S. by Thomas Dixon, Jr., Messrs. Broadhurst 
and Shubert and the members of their companies. 

Excluding all special entertainments, from September 
7, 1918, to August 16, 1919, the Theatre Ticket Bureau 
sent 63,395 soldiers, sailors and marines to the theatres 
on passes, and 29,656 tickets were bought and distributed 
free. 

Did Buddy and Gob like to go to shows? And did 
Buddy and Gob know where to get the tickets free? If 
one had stood on the southwest corner of Forty-Second 
Street and Fifth Avenue any night about seven-thirty, 
and watched the long line that strung out from the Free 
Ticket Booth on Forty-second Street around the corner 
to the main entrance of the Library, the answer would 
have been a decided "Yes!" 



Amusement Department 



A theatre without a box-office would start a stampede on Broadway. There was no need 
of a box-office at any of the free shows given by the Amusement Department. 



WITH the apparently simple slogan of "To pro- 
vide amusement," the Amusement Department 
started activities December, 1917. The first work 
included providing the best professional and volunteer 
entertainers for shipboard parties on U. S. battleships, 
entertainments at hospitals, entertainments in War Camp 



Community Service Clubs, and at other points where men 
in uniform congregated or were in service. 

The many calls made upon the Department soon after 
its inauguration for this form of service showed plainly 
its popularity. Ships' officers, chaplains, barracks' officers, 
those in charge of the comforts and recreation of men in 



ACTIVITIES DURING THE WORLD WAR 



PAGE 11 



service soon found that the entertainments provided by 
the War Camp Community Service Amusement Depart- 
ment were successful. 

The Sunday Vaudeville Shows 

But the events that called forth the most attention to 
the work of the Department were the Sunday Afternoon 
Vaudeville Shows, given every Sunday free to soldiers, 
sailors and marines. Beginning December 23, 1917, these 
shows were given on every Sunday until June 1, 1919. 

In the list "of those who served" at the shows will be 
found the names of most of the famous actors and actresses 
of the vaudeville stage. It was just this ability to get the 



best that has made the Amusement Department's under- 
taking one of the most popular activities of New York 
War Camp Community Service. The manner in which 
the "folks of the footlights" came forward and so gen- 
erously did their bit to cheer the lot of men in uniform 
made possible the great things that were accomplished. 

The figures giving the number of shows, and the at- 
tendance are enough to make even the most successful 
producer green with envy. Approximately 145 shows 
were given since the beginning of activities in Decem- 
ber, 1917, the total attendance being over 300,000. 



Hall of States 



A New Yorker stranded in Arkansas once said that he was so homesick that he would have 
kissed a dog if it had been from New York. Service men in New York could always have a chat 
with their home folks. 



A GLIMPSE of home in the midst of New York 
— this was the idea behind the Hall of States 
which was officially opened during January, 1919. 
The men from various States were cared for by the State 
Committees, the members of which were former resi- 
dents of the States they represented. 

The work done was divided into a number of depart- 
ments. These provided hospitality, information service, 
employment and vocational guidance, bus and automo- 
bile rides, sightseeing tours, theatre tickets and convales- 
cent service for the men in local hospitals. The workers 
of the Hall made efforts to get in touch with every man 
arriving here whose home was out of the city. Up to 
September 1st, 202,500 soldiers, sailors and marines had 
been helped at the Hall, where the average daily 
attendance was about 900. Bus rides were given to 
9,570 men, more than 6,000 theatre tickets were given 
out and coffee and doughnuts were served to 44,537 men. 

Official recognition of the work done by the Hall was 
given by a number of the States, their legislatures ap- 
propriating large sums for the work of their committees. 
These funds allowed many services which otherwise 
would have had to remain undone. There were countless 
instances where the Hall got in touch with the "home 
folks" of the man lying wounded in hospitals, and was 
able to bring them together. Numerous other instances 



there were where the Hall obtained employment for 
the man in his home town and sent him there. In 
addition, it was also a centre where parents and friends 
coming to New York to meet their soldiers, might ob- 
tain the information so necessary to enable them to do so. 

Hospital Work 

In hospital work the Hall of States obtained every 
day from the Red Cross the arrivals at all the hospitals 
in and about New York. These were then indexed by 
States to which the men belonged and given daily to the 
various State Committees. Here the ladies wrote to 
every man; they made sure that he had visitors, if he 
wanted them ; that he was brought to the Hall of States 
for convalescent parties, if he was up to that; and that 
his people back home knew of his condition and needs. 
Soldier-patients to the number of 1,777 were thus cared 
for by the Hospital Division of the Hall of States. 

While W. C. C. S. provided the overhead expenses, 
and common entertainment, the essence of the work was 
the individual hospitality provided by the ladies of the 
various State Committees, who gave unsparingly of time, 
effort, and devotion that each man should know he had 
a friend from his home State eager to welcome and assist 
him. 



D 



ISCUSSION may too often mean division; whereas common service in a cause 
means unity; and that is the way of Community Service. 



PAGE 1. 



NEW YORK WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE 



Church Co-operation 



Most people think that churches save only souls. This record shmvs that they went a long 
way to save bodies during the war. New York's churches ivent the limit to provide hospitality for 
service men. It's an example of "practical Christianity." 



CO-OPERATION of thirty-three city churches, 
thirteen of which became general service units 
aflfiliated with War Camp, largely multiplied the 
variety of services to men in uniform. 

Sleeping Accommodations 

With the co-operation of the Quartermaster's Depart- 
ment of the Army, nine churches were provided with beds 
and bed clothes. Five churches furnished their own dor- 
mitories. Baths were usually furnished with an average 
charge of 25c for bed, bath, soap and towel. It is esti- 
mated that in this way co-operating churches were able 
to offer 2,279 sleeping accommodations daily. 

Among them, St. Bartholomew's Church was able to 
provide 180 beds in its parish house and dispensary. From 
October 14, 1917, to March 1,1919, they provided for 
52,473 men at night. 

Temple Beth-El had 200 beds. During its period of 
service it provided for 55,208 men. A breakfast — coffee 
and rolls — and a shave were "thrown in" as a part of 
the service. 

Trinity Church at its rectory and school on 25th 
Street was able to provide accommodations for 384 beds 
operated as an annex to the War Camp hotel. In the 
Trinity Church Service Club downtown, 200 beds were 
installed, and from December, 1918, to July, 1919, they 
had provided for 13,944 men. 

West End Presbyterian Church at its church house 
and various annexes had 445 beds. They accommodated 
13,066 men during their period of service. 

Churches co-operating in this way were: St. Bartholo- 
mew's Church, Madison Avenue M. E. Church, Temple 
Beth-El, St. Thomas Church, Collegiate Church of St. 
Nicholas, National Lutheran Service Commission (22 
co-operating churches). West End Presbyterian Church, 
Trinity Church, First Presbyterian Church, Christ 
Church (Presbyterian), St. Mark's Church, and Bethany 
Church (Baptist), St. Michael's Church, Union Meth- 
odist Church. 

Canteen Service 

Canteen service provided by the churches varied from 
Sunday morning breakfasts to complete meal service three 
times a day. The number of meals furnished was not 
less than 450,000 during their period of service. 

The following churches operated either limited or 
complete service canteens: Temple Beth-El, St. Thomas 



Church, Madison Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church 
at Wesley House, St. Bartholomew's Church, St. 
Michael's Church, National Lutheran Service Commis- 
sion (uniting the services of 22 co-operating churches), 
Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas, Brick Presbyterian 
Church, West End Presbyterian Church, Grace Church, 
Trinity Church, and Union Methodist Church. 

The Marble Collegiate Church and the Greenwich 
Presbyterian Church limited themselves to the Sunday 
morning complimentary breakfasts. 

Entertainment 

Various churches either in the church building or 
parish house conducted most attractive service clubs. They 
were equipped as social and rest places with games, pool, 
billiards, reading and writing facilities, music and other 
attractions. Many conducted dances. The Weekly News 
Calendar for one week in March listed seven such enter- 
tainments. The same calendar showed that ten churches 
were providing special Sunday evening suppers and enter- 
tainments. In much of their work the churches were 
able to co-operate effectively. Twenty-two different 
Lutheran churches combined their war-work activities in 
maintaining a club on West 72d Street near Riverside 
Drive. Each church took charge two days in succession, 
providing hostesses, canteen workers and others for the 
specially attractive work of this club. Several of the 
churches made special efforts at church, home and other 
hospitality, and were successful in securing employment 
for considerable numbers of men as demobilization pro- 
gressed. 

The entertainment and hospitality of the club main- 
tained by the Brick Presbyterian Church by the young 
ladies of their church attracted much attention. 

Churches notable for various forms of the above war 
service were: West End Presbyterian Church, Fifth 
Avenue Baptist Church, St. Nicholas Collegiate Church, 
Madison Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, Church 
of the Divine Paternity, Central Church Disciples of 
Christ, Reformed Church of Harlem, Central Presby- 
terian Church, Mt. Morris Baptist Church, Church of 
the Holy Faith, and the Church of the Strangers. 

Home Hospitality 

The churches of New York assisted materially in 
proving that New York City is a friendly community, 
when the people have a chance to entertain. Thousands 



ACTIVITIES DURING THE WORLD WAR 



PAGE 13 



of men in uniform were taken home each Sunday by 
church members, and such work was continued during 
the week. Thanksgiving and Christmas were special 
occasions with particular observance of home hospitality. 
Such entertaining was also combined with specially 
arranged club dinners. A large proportion of the 4,671 
club dinners and the 2,330 home dinners for men at 
Christmas were provided by members of New York 
churches. 

Hospitality to Convalescents 

The unrecorded number of services to convalescents by 
co-operating churches and by independent church organ- 
ization is far in excess of the numbers on record. 



Five of the churches co-operating definitely with War 
Camp as club units became centers for convalescent serv- 
ice. Four hundred wounded men of the 27th Division, 
about two-thirds of the total number from out of town, 
were provided with sleeping accommodations, food and 
entertainment by seven churches during the Victory 
Celebration on March 24, 25 and 26. All of the co- 
operating churches participated to their ability in special 
convalescent service. Special mention may be made of 
the Church of the Holy Communion on 20th Street, in 
the heart of the Base Hospital district. This church 
opened its parish house with a well-equipped house, and 
entertained convalescent men continuously. 



Motor Department 



There are about 40,000 soldiers, sailors and marines who saw every point of interest from 
the Battery to Grant's Tomb from War Camp Community Service sight-seeing busses. 



THE many and insistent calls for automobiles and 
motor trucks for sightseeing trips, use of workers 
and transportation of furnishings and equipment 
to and from W. C. C. S. Units and Canteens led to the 
organization of the Motor Department in June, 1918. 

The work of the Department can be reviewed under 
four main headings^Sight Seeing Service, Motor Truck- 
ing, Convalescent Service, and the "Have-a-Lift" cam- 
paign. 

Sightseeing Service 

When the sightseeing trips were first organized, auto- 
mobile owners of New York were asked to volunteer 
the use of their cars for a sightseeing tour every Sunday. 
An attempt was made to have thirty cars in the train 
that carried the men from one end of the city to the 
other. It was found that the full number could not be 
depended upon to report, so sightseeing busses were used. 
A nominal charge of twenty-five cents for each person 
was made for the trip. Later when the trips had proved 
their popularity, they were also given on Mondays, 
Wednesdays and Fridays, starting at 12.30, 3.00 and 
5.00 p. m. 

The many out-of-town men who were hungry to get 
all the facts about New York were the inspiration for 
sending lecturers with each bus to name and explain the 
sights en route. Sightseeing busses have carried over 
39,000 passengers on tours of the city. 

Upon the arrival of army divisions, occasions such as 
fleet reviews and other special events, additional trips 
free of charge were made to give the men a good look at 
New York. 



Motor Trucking 

In the handling of the great quantities of supplies and 
equipment for clubs and canteens the motor trucks loaned 
by commercial houses were invaluable. Cots and bed- 
ding, cooking outfits, victrolas and records, books and 
games, chairs and tables, and such things often had to 
be moved at a moment's notice. In response to the call 
for a truck, the Motor Department would get in touch 
with a volunteer and the truck would be on hand in 
short order. 

Looking at it from a dollars and cents angle, up to 
September 1, 1919, 295 trucks had been used for the total 
of 1,176 hours. Figuring the hauling rate at $4.50 an 
hour, the use of the trucks was worth $5,292. It might 
be mentioned here that the number of private cars used 
for carrying officials of the organization about on the 
day's work, up to March, 1919, made a total of 780 cars 
in use 3,483 hours. A charge of $3.00 per hour would 
make the saving $10,449. 

Convalescent Service 

About January 15, 1919, wounded men began crowd- 
ing the debarkation hospitals in and around New York. 
Alwajs on the alert to make pleasant the stay of its 
healthy visitors in uniform. New York doubled its efforts 
to make the lot of the wounded men even more com- 
fortable and pleasant. 

The men were invited to hundreds of entertainments, 
dinners, luncheons and parties and had to be taken in 
cars to the various places. In the sadder case of the man 
who was not well enough to be carried about the city to 
these affairs, professional and amateur talent worked 



PAGE 14 



NEW YORK WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE 



night and day, co-operating with the Red Cross in giving 
entertainments and plays at the hospitals. 

The activities of several of the Departments of New 
York War Camp Community Service brought them into 
this work of caring for the convalescents. It was the 
work of the Motor Department to provide the means of 
transportation. 

When called upon for this type of service, all other 
calls were set aside and everything was done to insure 
good times for the wounded men. 

Daily sightseeing trips were organized and two trips 
were made to the hospitals and from there around the 
city. After the tour a light luncheon was served at a 
canteen. 

Some of the well-known clubs invited the men through 
W. C. C. S. to have luncheon at their club houses. 
Convalescents to the number of 11,596 were taken on the 
sightseeing trips from January 15 to August 16, on 377 
trips. Men to the number of 16,683 were served with 
dinners or were given luncheons. 

In addition to the above convalescent service, the Hall 



of States conducted tours for convalescent visitors. From 
this point, 9,292 men have been carried on trips. 

Have-a-Lift 

The first and one of the most important tasks the 
Motor Department had to accomplish was the rousing 
of the partiotic spirit in the car owner to give Buddy and 
Gob a lift. With only a few hours and sometimes but 
small change to "do the big town," our friends in uniform 
were hard put to do things right. 

Ten thousand metal wind-shield signs with the slogan 
— "Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Have a Lift" — were sold 
or distributed to car owners of New York. It was no 
unusual sight to see a man in uniform step out and hail a 
passing car showing the "War Camp" sign. Car owners 
caught the spirit and would go miles out of their way to 
drop their guest at his destination. 

It was through this bit of "personal hospitality" that 
a great number of car-owning New Yorkers made their 
first acquaintance with Buddy and Gob. As a result 
more than one lonesome boy has made a life-long friend 
of his host or hostess. 



Sing Department 



Singing didn't "win the war," but many New Yorkers sang to keep up morale in those try- 
ing days in 1918 before the signing of the armistice. Broadway theatres ran up the curtain with 
a song. Everyone sang!. 



TO carry into the community the same morale and 
patriotism and good-fellowship by singing as has 
been done so successfully in our army, both here 
and abroad — that was the purpose and aim of the Sing 
Department. And it has been a big purpose. New York, 
as a community, was made to know back in the dark days 
of 1918, before the signing of the armistice, what a bond 
of comradeship it was to stand by your fellows and sing 
for minutes and hours. In those days the slogan was 
"Keep up the morale to win the war." Later it was 
"Keep up the morale to win the peace." 

Starting in October, 1918, with "nothing but our con- 
fidence," the Sing Department reached nearly every kind 
of people in Greater New York and got them singing 
patriotic and popular songs at their meetings. 

Starting with three sings a week, two at the Robin's 
Ship Yards and one at Macy's Department Store, the 
week later averaged ninety sings. 

As a gauge of the instantaneous success of the Sing Idea 
as put forth by the Sing Department it is interesting to 
know that before two weeks had gone by, twenty-one 
theatres wanted War Camp Community Service song 



leaders to make singing audiences of their patrons. With- 
in six weeks after starting operations 250,000 people in 
theatres were singing under War Camp Community 
Service song leaders. 

Sings were conducted at gatherings of all types, 
amongst civilians and amongst uniformed men — in thea- 
tres; army hospitals; armories; parades; social, profes- 
sional and civic clubs; churches of all denominations; 
Masonic meetings; War Camp Community Service, 
Young Men's Christian Association and Red Cross units; 
shipyards, department stores, baseball and football games, 
and on numerous special occasions upon request. 

When President Wilson and ex-President Taft spoke 
on the "League of Nations" at the Metropolitan Opera 
House, March 4, 1919, the Sing Department conducted 
the splendid sing that preceded the addresses. Because 
this meeting -vas national in meaning and because there 
were present people who had to do with the whole na- 
tion's affairs, the Sing Department's efforts in effect 
gave an impetus to singing in all parts of the country. 

The figures speak for themselves. At 2,996 sings, 1,- 
284,817 people (which included 283,514 uniformed men 



ACTIVITIES DURING THE WORLD WAR 



PAGE 15 



and women), under 49 War Camp Community Service 
song leaders, sang and liked the idea enough in many 
cases to organize other groups. 

To fill this increased demand for song leaders 
and organizers a Training School was inaugurated 
and operated. Sixty men and women took advan- 
tage of the opportunity to learn every branch of the 
work. Thirty-five of these men and women will go out 
into the fields as volunteers and teach the people the joy 
and wholesome comradeship of community singing. 



In co-operation with the Volunteer Entertainment Bu- 
reau of War Camp Community Service the Sing Depart- 
ment has afforded New York another opportunity 
and pleasure through the numerous plays and opera given 
by volunteers and professionals at the Community Play- 
house. All those who wanted to were invited to join 
the company and receive training and rehearsals for per- 
formances of the opera "H. M. S. Pinafore," given on 
the U. S. S. Recruit in Union Square and again at the 
Community Playhouse. About six thousand stood listen- 
ing to the performance. 



Headquarters Unit No. 5 



Imagine one hundred men, coat collars turned up, hats pulled down, sitting around a fireless 
fireplace, eating brick ice cream. This inauspicious opening didn't retard the instant success of 
the hotel which rendered service to nearly 2,000,000 men in uniform. 



THE opening gun of W. C. C. S. Unit No. 5 was 
fired on Saturday evening, December 15, 1917. It 
was a bitter cold night, and all sleeping quarters 
then available for uniformed men being overcrowded, 
orders were given at 10 o'clock to throw open the doors 
of the old Earlington Hotel, which was then being put 
in shape by New York War Camp Community Service 
for an enlisted mens' hotel to be opened about January 
15, 1918. 

Without heat or other accommodations excepting 186 
cots, a mattress and one blanket to a cot, some of which 
were loaned by the American Red Cross, the doors were 
thrown open. That night every cot was filled and a few 
of the boys slept on the floor, daily papers answering the 
purpose of blankets for those fortunate enough to be 
among the first arrivals. 

That night we held our first reception, through the 
kind offices of a citizen who donated five gallons of brick 
ice cream. Now, can you imagine more than one hundred 
boys sitting on the floor in the big ballroom, around the 
fireless fireplace, their coat collars turned up, hats pulled 
down, one hand in pocket and the other holding a cold 
brick of ice cream? The good fellowship of the occasion 
was well expressed by one of the boys saying he would 
"rather be on the inside looking out, than on the outside 
looking in, even with all the disadvantages." This was 
the first intimate acknowledgment of appreciation from 
the boys for what was being done for them, and it was 
a sight that will never be forgotten. 

Our second reception was held two weeks later when 
the boys of the South Dakota band arrived, to be put up 
for the night, conditions being about the same, as we were 
unable to get any coal up to this time. The boys were 



in a jolly frame of mind and decided to serenade the entire 
house. We held our first band concert in the old billiard 
room, and the lively tunes of the boys kept us all warm 
and in good spirits for the balance of the night. 

With a send-off like that, is it any wonder that Unit 
No. 5 has grown to the proportions of the following 
record? Some idea of the real extent of the services 
rendered by the Unit to enlisted and discharged men can 
be gained from the following facts and figures compiled 
from exact records. 

Sleeping Accommodations 

The special work of Unit No. 5 has been to furnish 
sleeping accommodations to men in service or recently 
discharged. Even those intimately acquainted with the 
work of this organization do not realize that the hotel 
at No. 55 West 27th Street, since the beginning of 1918 
has secured beds for practically a half-million men — to be 
exact, 431,788 to September 1, 1919. 

The heaviest registration for any one week was that of 
August 26 — September 1, 1918, when 13,313 men were 
supplied with sleeping accommodations. The peak for 
any one day was 4,463, Saturday, January 4, 1919. 

The record of sleeping accommodations furnished by 
Unit No. 5 and its annexes is as follows: 

Unit No. 5, 55 W. 27th St., opened Dec. 15, 1917 348,730 

Bliss Unit, 35 VV. 25th St., " July 27, 1918 13,407 

Edison Unit, 44 W. 27th St., " Aug. 29, 1918 8,170 

Trinity School, 15 W. 25th St., " Oct. 5,1918 9,332 

Trinity Rectory, 27 W. 25th St., " Nov. 9, 1918 4,118 

Total 383,757 

Special open-air sleeping quarters were opened August 
9, 1919, on the roof of the Hotel Wellington; two hun- 
dred and twenty-one men were accommodated. 



PAGE 16 



NEW YORK WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE 



In addition to the figures above, 28,843 men were 
registered at Unit No. 5 and sent thence to other "War 
Camp" units and 19,188 were directed from Unit No. 5 
to the Municipal (Lodging House) Unit and to Mills 
Hotels, the grand total being 431,788. 

Special Service 

The Canteen was opened September 10, 1918. It has 
never since been closed, day or night, and has served 
533,170 meals, a daily average of 1,498. 

The Barber Shop was opened March 1, 1919, on a no- 
tip basis and rendered service to 15,529 men. 

Entertainment and hospitality were afforded in one 
or another form, exclusive of the Khaki and Blue dances, 
to 193,343 men. Of the total church and home break- 
fasts, dinners and suppers, and private dances, numbered 
104,583; theatres and vaudeville 64,773; bo.\ing bouts, 
4,491; sight seeing tours, 13,644. The largest number 
of dinner invitations given out was 3,480 on Christmas 
Day of 1918. A special Saturday night vaudeville show 
was started at Unit No. 5, June 7, 1919. About 300 
men attended each performance, the attendance to Sep- 
tember 1, 1919, being 3,300. 

While Unit No. 5 did not conduct an employment 
bureau, it did nevertheless place about 400 discharged 
men in positions since January 1, 1919. Fifty men were 
sent to the Farrell Estate at Oyster Bay, L. I., to learn 
landscape gardening and thirty men to Yellow Pines 
Paper Mills Company, Orange, Tex. A considerable 
number of chauffeurs were also placed. 

In addition to caring for a great many individual 
Allied soldiers and sailors. Unit No. 5 entertained the 
following detachments of Allied troops: 

Belgium 103 for 1 month 

French Foreign Legion 95 for 3 weeks 

Czecho Slovaks 110 for 3 weeks 

Italian Troops (Granatieri, Alpini and Bersi- 

saglieri) 284 for 5 weeks 

English Troops (British West Indies) 16 for 3 weeks 

Australian Troops (Anzacs) 50 for 1 week 

Canadian Troops 200 for 3 days 

General Service 

General service through the information bureau, per- 
sonal contract of office force, checking valuables, parcels, 
sea bags, grips, etc., and use of showers, billiard and 
writing rooms, etc., and emergency relief work for men 
in service or recently discharged is the complete 
record given below. All service was free, the only 
charge made at this unit being twenty-five cents a night 
for bed, bath, soap and towel, and for meals, served 



nominally at cost. Breakfast could be had for ten to 
thirty cents and a buffet dinner or supper for twenty- 
five to thirty-five cents. 

While not organized as a special information bureau, 
the unit did nevertheless render invaluable assistance 
to the parents and friends of enlisted men by giving 
information regarding insurance, allotments, furnishing 
sleeping accommodations through proper channels and in 
many cases bringing together son and parents who them- 
selves knew no way to accomplish this in so large a city. 

Unit No. 5 had the distinction of caring for the first 
convalescents returning from overseas, these being a 
detachment of 103 marines whom the unit cared for, in 
addition entertaining them at special entertainments, 
theatres, automobile trips and by home dinner invitations. 

Special note must be made of volunteer service rendered 
from the opening of the unit to September 1 and after by 
three doctors and one dentist whose services were available 
without charge, and in case of need, at any hour of the 
day or night. 

Summary of Services 

The complete record of accommodations and indi- 
vidual services afforded by Unit No. 5 is as follows: 

Sleeping Accommodations 431,788 

Canteen Service 533,170 

Barber Shop 15,529 

Entertainment and Invitations 193,343 

General Service as above 250,573 

Meals furnished free 5,920 

Lodgings furnished free 4,144 

Fare to home or camp 29$ 

Cashed Government checks, foreign money orders, 

foreign money exchanged 9,053 

Employment 400 

Total 1,444,213 

Premature news of the Armistice was the signal for a 
spontaneous outburst at Unit No. 5. That night can 
never be forgotten by those who witnessed it. News 
of the actual signing was the occasion of a more restrained 
feeling that found expression in the words of one of the 
boys: "We had to do it and we did it, but thank God 
it's over." 

Since that time the work of the Unit has changed from 
handling the boy anxious to go across and capture the 
Kaiser, dead or alive, to caring for the boy anxious to 
get out of the service and "get back on the job" of civilian 
life with clearer mind, renewed vigor, and more ambition 
than ever to better himself in the world. 

In both phases of its service to the boys, the entire staff 
of Unit 5 was devotedly eager to render every pos- 
sible service until its work should be done. 



^^OMMUNITY SERVICE aims, not to impose a cut and dried social programme 
C_>/ from without, but to draw out the strength that is in the people and to make 
them conscious and sufficient directors of their own affairs. 



ACTIVITIES DURING THE WORLD WAR 



PAGE 17 



Property Department 



To find beds for over 700,000 men using War Camp Community Service Units, to get fur- 
niture and equipment for all sorts of activities was the task of the Property Department. It was 
some job/ 



INCESSANT demands to "get things done" for the 
actual service of men in uniform, made it impossible 
in the small organization available during the first 
period of War Camp work, to inaugurate a complete 
system of purchase and accounting until August, 1918, 
when a property department was organized and, again, 
until November, 1918, when a system of purchasing was 
installed. While all purchase requisitions of the organ- 
ization, other than those for printing, have passed 
through this department, the vital work of the depart- 
ment has been to find beds requisitioned by sleeping units 
for the thousands of men in uniform who have been in 
New York City on leave, or on duty as in the "bunking" 
of the 27th Division at the armories in April previous to 
its parade. As official host to Uncle Sam's "boys," this 
organization has provided beds and bedding for a total 
of 689,708 men to September 1, 1919. 

While the rush of returning troops was on at Christ- 
mas time of 1918, and while combined with this the 
Atlantic Fleet was visiting the Port of New York, the 
Property Department obtained and had available on 
Christmas Day, 10,026 beds for enlisted men, at twenty- 
five cents per night each. To do this, the Property De- 
partment between the twentieth and twenty-fourth of 
December, with the help of Secretary of War Baker and 
the Zone Supply Officer of the Quartermaster Corps at 
the Port of New York, secured and placed for use four 
thousand complete bed outfits borrowed from the Quar- 
termaster's store. 

The above equipment is still in the custody of the 
New York War Camp Community Service by grace of 
the Army authorities, and much of it is still being used 
for the needs of enlisted men. Such as had not been 
required during the summer months for the need of 
enlisted men, was made available for community service, 
and the widest possible use has been made of it rather than 
permit it to remain in store and idle. 

The first community call for this material was from the 
Alumni Association of Yale Univeraly, for the Spring 
Celebration when housing conditions at New Haven pre- 



sented a problem to the Yale Management. War Camp 
Community Service furnished two hundred complete bed 
outfits for the use of the Alumni. With the opening of 
the summer camping season, the requests for assistance 
came fast, and each worthy one was acceded to, so far 
as possible. A list of services performed follow: 

The Ridgefield Convalescent Home at Ridgefield, 
Conn., was allowed twenty outfits. The Federation 
for Child Study borrowed seventy cots for use at the 
Stuyvesant House and Hudson Guild. The Federated 
Neighborhood Association borrowed fifty outfits for use 
at its summer home at New Brighton, Staten Island. 
The Young Men's Hebrew Association borrowed thirty- 
seven blankets for use at its camp. The Children's Aid 
Society called upon the organization for fifty complete 
bed outfits for use at Valhalla, New York. 

The Boy Scouts of America borrowed from the War 
Camp over 700 complete bed outfits for use at the camp 
at Bear Mountain, and forty cots for use at their Peek- 
skill Camp. The New York State Woman's land army 
borrowed 75 cots and 110 blankets. We were able to 
help the Sixty-Ninth Regiment with seven hundred cots 
for use at Peekskill. The Twelfth Regiment used 725 
cots at its summer camp at Peekskill. 

The Property Department's largest collegiate service 
was the shipment of four hundred complete bed outfits to 
Hamilton, New York, for the use of Colgate University 
during its Centennial Celebration, held from October 9th 
to October 11th, 1919. 

To enable the New York Telephone Company to keep 
up its service during the Brooklyn Rapid Transit strike, 
we loaned forty bed outfits, and during the Interborough 
strike, three hundred, all for telephone operators. Through 
our assistance, the Yale Club at Forty-fourth Street and 
Vanderbilt Avenue, was able to house thirty additional 
persons during the later strike. 

A complete inventory and valuation of all property, 
either belonging to or in the hands of New York War 
Camp Community Service, was compiled and has been 
kept up to date. 



c 



OMMUNITY SERVICE is one answer to "social unrest." Where the com- 
munity is a unity through common service "commune" has no place. 



PAGE 18 



NEW YORK WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE 



Girls' Division 



How would you organize thousands of girls for war work and wholesome comradeship with 
service men? The Girls' Division found a method which worked successfully. 



GIRLS' activities have, from the beginning, been 
operated as a separate division of War Camp 
Community Service, under the name, first, of the 
Girls' Patriotic Service League, and, later. Girls' 
Community Service. The formal organization of 
young women for patriotic service was to develop among 
them a co-operative relationship to men in uniform. The 
Girls' Patriotic Service League, with a registration 
of 25,000 girls pledged to personal patriotic service, was 
launched in the autumn of 1917 and was reorganized in 
the summer of 1918 to become Girls' Community 
Service, "a movement for the purpose of organizing 
young women of the community to co-operate in sustain- 
ing military morale." 

Members were united in a program of Comradeship 
and Service to men in uniform. Service began with prac- 
tical hand-work, such as knitting, sewing. Red Cross 
activities, cheer-up letters and scrap-books. Comradeship 
showed itself in efforts to do woman's share in the war 
by contributing to thrift and relief campaigns and helping 
with various drives, by holding rallies where the patriotic 
responsibilities of young women were presented and by 
sustaining, through their personal attitude, the courage 
and patriotic pride of our men in service. Comradeship 
and Service were united when, in January, 1919, the 
members of Girls' Community Service began a series 
of Comrade Parties to welcome home men returned from 
camp or overseas, therebv acknowledging their sense of 
obligation to the men and at the same time giving them 
a public Welcome Home to the respective communities 
from which they had been enlisted. 

Throughout the winter of 1918-19, a three-fold pro- 
gram of Comrade Rallies, Comrade Parties and Comrade 
Service was carried on in twenty-one districts of Greater 
New York under the name of the Comrade Campaign. 
Girls to the number of 6,459 enlisted, and of these 4,030 
were actively interested. They held 128 rallies with a 
total attendance of 11,329; gave eighty-six parties at 
which 5,386 girls and 3,215 men were present; and 
helped 11,526 soldiers. In June, 1919, a summer pro- 
gram went into eflfcct throughout the city. In Man- 
hattan there were weekly Comrade Evenings in sev- 
eral neighborhoods for men returned from service; also 
special hospitality by groups of girls for men still in 
uniform. The evenings were held at neighborhood cen- 
ters and the work done at W. C. C. S. Clubs. Brooklyn 
girls conducted Community Comrade Clubs on a self- 



supporting basis, with dances for returned service men 
every two weeks. Staten Island did special work for 
convalescent men at Fo.x Hills Hospital, with extensive 
recreation activities for girls. 

Girls' Community Service 

Girls' Community Service was based on the prin- 
ciples of Comradeship and Service. Comradeship em- 
phasizes the spirit of democracy, of friendliness and of 
mutual interest between young men and women. Service 
is the public acknowledgment by young women of their 
responsibility to the community. Recreation between 
young men and women is the opportunity to express both 
Comradeship and Service. 

Work was organized by districts (thirteen in Man- 
hattan, five in Brooklyn, two in Bronx, one in Staten 
Island) and district membership was given to any girl 
under one of three conditions: she must live, belong to 
a club or be employed in the district where she wished 
to join. Any young woman of eighteen could become 
and remain a member so long as she showed the spirit 
of Comradeship and Service. If she already belonged to 
any organization of young women she could work through 
and with her own club. If she were not a member, 
she came in as an individual member and joined a ser- 
vice group under a leader. Comrade Service Commit- 
tees of girls in each district helped to work out plans 
and direct the actual service of members. An Advisory 
Committee of interested women acted in each district, 
under the leadership of a chairman, to make suggestions 
as to the development of activities in its neighbor- 
hood. 

Three conclusions may be drawn from observation of 
Girls' Community Service. The enthusiastic and 
sustained response of so many young women to a call for 
organized service and the appreciation of returned sol- 
diers, generously expressed, point the way to future ac- 
tivities. There are many girls who are not interested in 
belonging to a girls' club or settlement group, who 
nevertheless want organized service, and there are also 
many boys in civilian clothes who appreciate the privi- 
lege of meeting the right sort of girl in pleasant circum- 
stances. For the young woman who already belongs to 
a club there is a wide field for leadership and for a 
larger responsibility than her own club gives her, and 
at the same time her club loyalty and pride develop 
through calls for group service in the community. Fin- 



ACTIVITIES DURING THE WORLD WAR 



ally, the bringing together into a district organiza- 
tion of highly individualized welfare agencies has con- 
tributed to the development of community feeling. Insti- 
tutional, religious and local prejudices have given way in 



PAGE 19 



the face of a larger interest. Girls' Community Serv- 
ice has opened the door to community service for girls 
and to recognition of the value of young womanhood in 
the social life of the community. 



Officers' Service Department 



It wouldn't take an accountant to figure out how long a second lieutenant's salary would 
keep its receiver at one of Nezu York's best hotels. Houever, War Camp Community Service 
found a way out of the difficulty for hundreds of officers. 



THE department was started during August. 1918, 
for the purpose of assisting and protecting the 
officers of the United States and Allied services. 
Although much was being done for enlisted men, until 
the inauguration of this department, nothing was being 
done for the junior oflficers, the majority of whom were 
only subsisting on their Array pay. 

The Information Bureau of the department has served 
127,306 officers; 13,001 have used the Checking Bureau; 
2,248 have occupied rooms in leading hotels at a discount 
of from 40 to 50 per cent, through the Hotel Bureau; 
67,159 have been guests of the Entertainment Bureau; 
1,163 convalescent officers have applied for service and 
375 have been placed in homes by the Convalescent Bu- 
reau, which has the use of fifty of the finest country 
homes near New York; the Employment Bureau has 
placed 150 officers in positions and has sent 230 to their 
old positions at their homes and the Vocational Guidance 
Bureau has given 1,033 interviews. 

In addition, sleeping accommodations for from 25 to 
75 officers were provided daily at the Service Department 
and seldom fewer than the minimum took advantage of 
this convenience. Hundreds of officers were thus pro- 
vided with a good place to sleep at a very low cost. 



Shopping Bureau 

Starting during October, 1918, the Shopping Bureau 
of the department issued 25,203 cards entitling 18,972 
officers to from 10 to 50 per cent, discount in their pur- 
chases at 209 establishments. A conservative estimate 
shows that each officer saved about $10, the total amount 
saved being more than $200,000. 

A noteworthy feature of the hospitality of the Enter- 
tainment Bureau was the series of tea dances given 
in the ballrooms, first of the Hotel Imperial and later at 
the Holland House. These commenced on December 
1, 1918, and closed on May 16, 1919, when the officers 
presented the hostess with bouquets and a vote of thanks. 
These dances were started to meet the demand of the 
officers for a place to dance which was not a public dance 
hall, and for partners who were not of the kind fre- 
quenting such places. Sixtj'-nine tea dances were given 
and were attended by 5,520 officers of both the Army 
and Navy, making an average of eighty per dance. In 
addition to the hostesses who attended the dances, several 
hundred young women acted as partners. 

The managements of both the Hotel Imperial and the 
Holland House generously donated the use of their ball- 
rooms for the dances. 



Pershing Club for Officers 



General John J. Pershing visited the Pershing Club for Officers and complimented the War 
Camp Community Service on the service it rendered. 



TO provide hospitality and club accommodations for 
the thousands of officers returning from abroad, as 
well as those stationed in and about New York, 
the Pershing Club was opened on December 24, 1918, 
with an informal dance, the formal opening taking place 



on New Year's Day. From the very beginning the Club 
was thronged with officers of both services of the United 
States and the Allies. 

Up to September 1, 1919, 219,813 officers received 
hospitality at the Club; there was a daily average at- 



PAGE 20 



NEW YORK WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE 



tendance of 957, and there were 278 dances or other 
entertainments which were attended by an average of 
from 200 to 400 officers. 

On special occasions, such as the great receptions to the 
Atlantic Fleet and the returning victorious Divisions, the 
officers of these units have made their headquarters at the 
Club, and have been guests of dances or receptions in their 
honor. General John J. Pershing, commander-in-chief 
of the A. E. F., during his three days' reception by the 
city of New York on his return from France, visited the 
Club and complimented the New York War Camp Com- 
munity Service on the work done for officers there, saying 
that he had often heard the club spoken of in the highest 
terms while he was on duty in France. 

The canteen, at which three meals were served daily, 
was a very popular feature of the Club, and during its 
work served 28,735 officers. These men received the 



same food they would have ordered in the great hotels 
in the neighborhood and saved one half of what they 
would otherwise have had to spend. 

One of the last services given by the Club was for the 
Army nurses. These were admitted on the same footing 
as commissioned men and enjoyed the same privileges, hav- 
ing, however, special accommodations in separate club 
rooms. Many of them expressed gratitude at this action 
of the Club since they nearly all arrived in New York with 
limited funds. In addition to the nurses who did not 
register, more than 200 left their names and received their 
mail at the Club while in the city. 

The great success of the Club was largely due to the 
hundreds of devoted volunteers who gave unsparingly 
of their time to entertaining and providing hospitality for 
the officers. 



Employment 



Violent cases of "New Yorkitis" complicated the employment problem when demobilization 
was well under way. It was no time to "boost New York" as a residence city. Something had 
to be done to persuade the boys to go back home. 



THE armistice coming a year or more sooner than 
was expected, made immediate action necessary 
in placing the men demobilized in the commercial 
and industrial lines from which they came. A conference 
was called at Washington and was attended by represent- 
atives of all national war work agencies. The war work 
agencies were called upon to aid in the organization and 
operation of the system. War Camp Community Service 
with the other agencies agreed to help in the emergency 
and the work was portioned out. 

Because of its position locally. New York War Camp 
Community Service was called upon to — 

1. Solicit positions. 

2. Advise and counsel men in uniform. 

3. Direct them to the proper and nearest employ- 

ment bureau. 

4. Urge men to return to their home towns. 

5. Steady the men during the period of inactivity. 

6. House, feed and entertain the men. 

The Booths, Clubs and Canteens were the contact 
points. At these places the men were advised and di- 
rected and much wasted effort on the part of the appli- 
cant and the United States Employment Service was 
thus eliminated. The Clubs and Canteens also played 
a very important part by looking after the needs and 
comforts of the men seeking positions. 

The other half of the job — advising and counseling, 
urging men to return to their home towns, steadying the 



men during the period of inactivity — were tasks that 
called for special workers. 

The Vocational Guidance Bureau 

One step taken to accomplish these things was the 
inauguration of the Vocational Guidance Bureau. It 
was found that a goodly percentage of the men wanted 
to make a decided change in their careers by going into 
fields of work other than those they had been engaged in 
previously. Viewing the situation as a whole, in some 
cases this change was a wise one ; in other cases it would 
be unwise. The stafif of the Vocational Guidance Bu- 
reau aided the individual in his decision and then directed 
him to the opportunity for training for his new work. 

In the early stages the Bureau's work was not to place 
the men in positions ; for that they were sent to the proper 
placement bureau of the United States Employment 
Service. Later, however, placement work was done by 
the Bureau because of the many cases needing immediate 
employment, and to make sure that the men counseled 
with followed the advice of the vocational guides. Dur- 
ing the interview, when it was found that the individual 
had not finished his university or college studies it was 
very often possible to get him to return to school. 

Then there was the case of the man whose home town 
was in another part of the country, who had contracted 
"a violent case of New Yorkitis," as one of the employ- 
ment workers put it. Having received his discharge in 





■ 


1 ^^^^H 


H 


tmm ^^HI*^flNl 


fl'fll 


- '''srjtjfLt 


fMM 


, • r , fl .^aa^lteJ' 


l^H 


V ^^1 - f|^-^iHi/^B[ 


"^■^1 




' . -''^^B 


^^^' Y^^!^ 


n 


■S^Ejm||^a|av%i^|^|^|^a|^HB|^_|ig^Ip^^ 


^1 




rERSHiNG House Guests Pack Five Thousand Boxes op 
Fudge for Christmas "Khaki and Blue" Dan'ce 



U.NL .11- Hit liAl'fi WbUUlNuS t-uR WiiiLii l't,K5iilNij iluUSE 

Has Stood Sponser 




Dance at rERsniNC Club for Oi-ficers, with TERbHiNG Theatre in the Backgroun 





Happy Evenings that Made New York Seem Like Home 
TO THZ Stranger in Uniform 



The Popular Doughnut Line at thb Hau. of States 



1 


■ 


^m 


p 


^ '.pi 


1 


m 

If 

4^ 




1^ 

^4 








A.ilpM 


l-<'9 


3-^^ 


I 




vmm 


'^^fw 


1]W,;/--? 


p 






'mu 










I'liRSHiNG House 



The Welcome of a Real Home Cheered Many a Lonely 
Service Man on' Hts Way Overseas 




Miss Elsie Ferguson Appearing at a Sunday Vaudeviille Show for Soldiers and 
Sailors. Given by the Amusement Department 





A Breathing Spell at the Officers' Dances Held at 
National Arts Club by the W. C. C. S. 



Officers' Mess 



M iiiK \V. C. C. S. Junior Officbrs' 
Hosfitalitv House 



ACTIVITIES DURING THE WORLD WAR 



PAGE 21 



the East, he looked upon New York as the Golden Gate 
to Fame and Fortune. Knowing conditions, the Voca- 
tional Guidance Bureau urged the men to go back home 
and "carry on" back there. The Employment Bureau 
at the Hall of States made the connecting link between 
the men and employment opportunities in the men's home 
States and communities. 

In the crisis brought about by the failure of Congress 
to appropriate the money to carry on employment work, 
the various war-work agencies, employers under the leader- 
ship of the Merchants' Association and the U. S. Em- 
ployment Service got together and organized the Re- 
Employment Bureau of New York City for Soldiers, 
Sailors and Marines as the central employment point 
in New York. Funds for the operation of the Bureau 
were contributed by the war-work organizations, and as 
its portion of the amount needed to operate the Re- 
Employment Bureau, War Camp Community Service 
gave $23,000, or 29 per cent, of the support given by five 
welfare organizations. 

When the Re-Employment Bureau became the one 
point at which all applicants and employers could be taken 
care of the War Camp Community Service Employment 
Department was discontinued and its staff was trans- 
ferred to the offices of the Re-Employment Bureau. 

The Vocational Guidance Bureau interviewed and help- 
ed 2,626 men to secure the training opportunities that 
would make them better and more satisfied workers and 
otherwise gave counsel and advice. Openings in addition 
to the figures for Brooklyn noted in the following article, 
numbering 6,509, were secured by War Camp Com- 
munity Service canvassers and passed to the Federal Bu- 



The Vocational Education Bureau 

As a separate and distinct branch of the work of the 
W. C. C. S. Employment Department, the Vocational 



Education Bureau was organized in April, 1919. While 
the Vocational Guidance Bureau had the immediate work 
of helping discharged men find re-employment in the fields 
from which they were taken, the Vocational Education 
Bureau set about finding the educational and training fa- 
cilities of the country's schools and industries that the 
men might be educated to the new standards of efficiency 
in the work they might choose as their life-work. 

Accordingly, all the prominent technical institutions 
throughout the country were canvassed and full informa- 
tion concerning admission, tuition, type of course, etc., 
etc., was secured and printed in a booklet called The 
Vocational Guide. Twenty-five thousand copies of this 
Guide were distributed to discharged men by all the war- 
work agencies coming in contact with them. Later a re- 
vised edition of 20,000 was distributed. 

Since, in many cases, it was important that a living 
wage be earned while receiving training, the Vocational 
Education Bureau also secured information concerning 
industries in which training courses with pay were given 
by individual companies. Service men were enabled to 
secure both training and a livelihood with a promising 
future. 

The following figures will give an adequate idea of the 
activities of the Vocational Education Bureau: 1,850 
schools, giving 5,000 courses, were listed; 109 corporation 
schools in 71 industries and 817 trades were listed, with 
1,429 occupations. With the detailed information con- 
cerning these training opportunities the Bureau was en- 
abled to give specific and accurate advice to the many 
men who applied directly or indirectly for the service. 

Aside from the help to the individual that the Bureau 
was able to render, there was the greater achievement of 
doing an appreciable bit to stabilize the labor market. At 
a time when the market was being flooded with labor it 
could not absorb, the Bureau was returning men to tech- 
nical schools. 



Brooklyn Organization 



Who wouldn't take a day off at Coney Island if he could take in all the attractions free or at 
half price? It didn't take soldiers, sailors and marines long to see the opportunity. 



THE first Unit in Brooklyn was opened on October 
19, 1918, and when the organization was caring 
for the greatest number of service men there were 
eight canteens and service clubs in operation day and night. 
From its inception to September 1, 1919, the division 
has provided service men with 431,223 meals, 32,771 
sleeping accommodations, and has given dances and other 
entertainments which were attended by 70,832 soldiers. 



sailors and marines. In addition, other services given 
uniformed men numbered 46,297. 

Particularly noteworthy work has been done by the 
Employment Bureau of the Department. This com- 
menced work on December 27, 1918, and has steadily 
maintained the highest average of placement of all the 
various employment agencies caring for service men in 
New York City. As the result of this bureau's intensive 



PAGE 22 



ACTIVITIES DURING THE WORLD WAR 



and well-directed work 6,833 men have been referred to 
positions, 45,486 positions have been found and 6,134 
men have been placed in positions which promise to be 
permanent. 

Owing to the nature of its work the Coney Island 
Unit is treated separately from the other Brooklyn units. 
This club, the popularity of which was extraordinary, 



was opened by the late Hon. Theodore Roosevelt in 
May, 1918. More than 254,207 service men enjoyed its 
hospitality. Its canteen served 62,208 meals, it distributed 
113,379 free and cut-rate tickets to the attractions of the 
Island, and there were 100 dances and special entertain- 
ments, none of which were attended by fewer than 250 
service men. 



Welcome Home Clubs 



Service men liked the War Camp Community Service clubs so well that they are now run- 
ning Community Clubs patterned after the ones they found on returning from overseas. 



SOME time after the first of the year, 1919, when 
demobilization was fairly well under way, it was 
thought desirable to promote the idea of "Welcome 
Home" facilities for the men returning to their New 
York homes. To this end the Advertising Department 
put out "Welcome Home" banners, posters, etc., and 
various other departments of the organization provided 
special features. 

The Club Department promoted the idea of "Welcome 
Home" festivities among the various service clubs, par- 
ticularly the affiliated clubs, with much success. Since 
most of the clubs, however, were located along avenues 
of dense traffic it was thought desirable to open some 
clubs nearer to the neighborhoods in which the men live. 
As an experiment two such clubs were opened ; at Harlem 
Welcome Home Community Club, Unit No. 12, which 
had been previously used as a sleeping unit; and Public 
School 41, under the name of Greenwich Village Club. 

In the case of the latter, a committee had already been 
formed, and in the case of the former a committee had to 
be formed. In each case, however, through committee 



organization, a program of "Welcome Home" festivities 
was arranged and War Camp Community Service loaned 
a director and some equipment. Each club got into fairly 
complete operation as a "Welcome Home" organization 
some time toward the latter part of February and oper- 
ated three months on that plan. In the meantime, after 
conference and discussion the Club Department was au- 
thorized to establish community clubs in various districts 
of the city, which are now known as "Community Clubs," 
but which at first were known as "Welcome Home" 
clubs. In fact, however, they have been bona fide com- 
munity organizations and quite different in organization 
from the first two "Welcome Home" clubs. 

The original "Welcome Home" clubs were strictly en- 
tertainment and service affairs, run much like the service 
clubs previously connected with War Camp Community 
Service. The new "Community Clubs," however, repre- 
sent the organization of the men themselves to carry on 
such activities as they themselves desire. Each of the few 
named strictly "Welcome Home" clubs have now disap- 
peared and have become community organizations. 




Contents 



General Summary - 

Advertising Department - 

Publicity Department 

Volunteer Department - 

Club Department - 

Social Department - - - 

Free Theatre Ticket Bureau 

Amusement Department 

Hall of States . . - 

Church Co-operation 

Motor Department 

Sing Department - - - 

Headquarters Unit No. 5 

Property Department 

Girls' Division 

Officers' Service Department 

Pershing Club for Officers - 

Employment 

Brooklyn Organization - 

Welcome Home Clubs 



PAGE 
3 
6 
7 
8 
9 
9 
10 
10 
11 
12 
13 
14 
15 
17 
IX 
19 
19 

- 20 
21 
22 



NEW YORK WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE 

ROWLAND HAYNES, Director 
WILLIAM HAMLIN CHILDS. Treasurer 



JOHN R. HOWARD, Jr., Organising Secretary ALEXANDER CLELAND, Operating Division 



HARRY DOUGLAS ROBINS 

Division of Advertising and Information 



General Committee 

Charles H. Sabin, Chairman 

Dr. George E. Vincent. Vice Chairman and 
Chairman, Service Committee 



John G. Agar 
William C. Breed 
William Hamlin Cbilds 
R. Fulton Cutting 
Charles J. Edwards 
Hon. Abram I. Elkus 
John R. Hall 
Mrs. E. H. Harriraan 



Charles Hayden 
Alexander J. Hemphill 
Clarence J. Hicks 
William B. Joyce 
Willard V. King 
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. 
Mortimer L. Schiff 
C. 1. Stralem 



MRS. ADAH HOPKINS AIME, 

Secretary Girls' Division 



IVomen'i Advisory Committee 



Mrs. E. H. Harriman, Chairman 



Mrs. George E. Brewer 
Mrs. Nicholas Murray Butler 
Mrs. Andrew Carnegie 
Mrs. Charles A. Childs 
Miss Martha L. Draper 
Mrs. Henry C. Frick 
Mrs. W. Pierson Hamilton 



Mrs. Arthur Curtiss James 

Mrs. L. S. McClellan 

Mrs. John Purroy Mitchel 

Mrs. D. Hennen Morris 

Mrs. H. Fairfield Osborne 

Miss Ellen Parks 

Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. 



NOTE — For much of the war period Mr. K. D. Widdemer was Organizing Secre- 
tary. When he went to France on war work his place was taken by Mr. John R. 
Howard, Jr. Mr. Widdemer later returned to Community Service as Associate 
Director. 



■.j.oi\Mni ur- i^UNLjKtbb 



llllllllllllillll 

009 232 252 fl • 



J 



